Gun Control Sent Me Packing

Dwight Slocum Sr. of East Hartford, center, and other gun rights supporters follow the action on a monitor as the state Senate prepares to vote on wide-ranging gun control bill on April 3, 2013.

Dwight Slocum Sr. of East Hartford, center, and other gun rights supporters follow the action on a monitor as the state Senate prepares to vote on wide-ranging gun control bill on April 3, 2013. (Stephen Dunn, Hartford Courant)

JUDY ARON | COMMENTARYThe Hartford Courant

What's your line in the sand?

When do you finally say, "Enough," decide to sell your house, pack up your things and move your life to another state that offers more freedom and liberty?

For me and my family, the straw that broke the camel's back was the ludicrous and oppressive gun legislation enacted last year in Connecticut by progressive Democrats and weak-kneed, unprincipled Republicans.

We are gun owners. We had been members of Connecticut Citizen's Defense League and many other Second Amendment and liberty organizations. There was no way we were going to submit to registration of anything that we owned, nor were we going to be restricted in defending ourselves by limiting the number of bullets in our magazines as a result of the state's new gun laws.

Our guns did not kill those children in Sandy Hook, and yet Connecticut wanted to punish us for it. We are cheering for those who have decided not to register and we respect others who decided not to risk becoming instant felons. Our choice was simply to leave.

Nothing in the new gun laws would have prevented Adam Lanza from murdering. Being students of history and both descendants of Holocaust survivors, my husband and I are aware of the gun control, citizen disarmament agenda. We decided we would have no part of registration and the subsequent confiscation that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and his cohorts thirst for. We understand fully that gun control isn't about guns, it's about control.

We decided not to put our ability to defend ourselves in jeopardy, especially after the Cheshire home invasion. In speaking to legislators such as Sen. Beth Bye, D-West Hartford, and Sen. Martin Looney, D-New Haven, we understood full well that they were not finished and that more anti-Second Amendment legislation was forthcoming. It's just a matter of time before they place high taxes on ammunition and heap other crazy requirements on gun owners in Connecticut with the sole purpose of making it impossible to own or use a firearm.

The Republican minority was complicit in destroying constitutional rights in Connecticut, so we couldn't even go to Senate Minority Leader John McKinney of Fairfield or House Minority Leader Larry Cafero of Norwalk for help. We decided not to stick around for yet another election cycle to stop this insanity, because progressive culture and uninformed voters continue to elect people who erode our rights.

It was time to leave Connecticut. It's a state riddled with political corruption, which has ripped Second Amendment rights from citizens while taxing them to death and redistributing wealth to illegal immigrants and nanny state freeloaders.

We are not alone in our decision to leave Connecticut. The exodus has begun in earnest as people clamor to move anywhere where there is more economic opportunity, smaller government, less crime and more freedom. Their children have already left the state because there are no real career jobs to be had. Texas, Montana, Wyoming, Tennessee, North Carolina are some choices for people who are leaving, but we decided on New Hampshire.

The motto "Live Free or Die" is not taken lightly here. There's no state income tax and no sales tax, and gun rights are still intact. All it took was $10 and a short form to get our concealed carry permits. We can walk around all day with holstered guns and no police will bother us and the citizens don't freak out either. It's one of the safest states in the country, too. People here understand that guns are tools and are not to be banned just because they look scary. We can hunt and set up our own shooting range on our property without anyone saying we can't.

I take much satisfaction in knowing that my state representative and senator are committed to preserving Second Amendment rights. A gun control bill was soundly defeated just this past week by liberty-loving New Hampshire legislators.

There's a growing liberty community here as well, as a result of the Free State Project, and they are working to keep New Hampshire free. Freedom to live as you choose without a big nanny state government behemoth dictating how you live is quite refreshing.